Damn.
I live in SW Portland, within a mile of downtown. I live in a small 4-plex with Buddhist prayer flags hanging from the front porch.
To those of you who know Portland, you probably know that this is not a fruitful neighborhood for the Christian right. So, props to them for trying, I guess.
Anyway, its a beautiful Saturday morning, it has been raining, and the sun just came out. There is that wonderful clean smell in the air which one can detect after a night of rain. We have the front door open (with the screen door closed to keep the cat inside).
I am reading the blogs. My GF is variously talking on the phone, doing some minor chores, and reading a book.
Two young (pretty) blonde girls materialize on our porch holding Bibles. Well-dressed.
They start with mt GF, as she is up and goes to the door. She doesn't open the screen.
"Hi. Are you hopeful or doubtful about the future?"
Silence.
My GF is obviously trying to think of a polite way to shoo them out, but without engaging them in their conversation.
"Uhm..."
"Would you mind if I read to you from the Book of Psalms?"
Jesus fucking Christ (intentional blasphemy).
I get up from the computer. "Look, we both grew up in Christian families, are both very spritual people, but our spirituality does not rely on the dispensation of any organized Christian churches. And we are not interested in discussing this matter with you this morning. If you don't mind stepping off my porch now..." (accompanied with a little shooing motion of my hands).
They depart.
After apparently hitting dry holes in the rest of the four-plex (surprise surprise), we see them driving away. In a mid-to-late 90's Lexus.
Mind you, our house is less than a block from a rail station, and neither of us drives. We are in our late 20's-early 30's.
These were teenage/college-age girls.
The tableau almost makes me wish I had stuck around and given them some of the teachings of Christ in the Temple - you know "it is easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into Heaven," that sort of thing. Except I can't say that I'm hopeful that any real dialogue would have ensued.
So, I more or less politely, yet firmly, told them to fuck off.
What really gets my goat is that we have children (and in my mind most of them are children despite their age) trying to spread their brand of the Word around Iraq and they have been for the past year.